Circular European Economy Innovative Training Network

ended

Circ€uit – the Circular European Economy Innovative Training Network - creates a cohort of future leaders in research, policy & business through its innovative training programme focused on the Circular Economy. Circular business models, based on leasing or providing functionality rather than products, often called Product Services Systems, are widely seen as a way how business can create sustainable jobs and growth. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) and McKinsey calculated that circular business will create billions of value. This opportunity has become an important development area for researchers engaged in the sustainability, engineering and design and business fields. Seven top universities well embedded in the EIT KIC Raw materials, supported by the EMF, their CE100 network and various companies propose here a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure a range of research perspectives are included across the circular field. 5 main areas of research are relevant to understand how to create such business models. 1. Businesses and business models: how to stimulate circular provisioning? 2. Supply chains: how to organize supply and delivery chains for circularity? 3. Users: how to motivate stimulate circular consumption? 4. Design: how to design circular value propositions? 5. Systems: How to ensure economic and environmental benefits can support for change to circularity? We choose these areas as our main Work Packages, and appoint PhD students in each of these areas with as main goals: 1. Create new business model innovation across Europe that helps to support the economy while at the same time reduce ecological burden 2. Create a new, sustainable and cross-disciplinary network of trained experts who will have the skills, qualifications, and professional connections to drive future innovation. 3. Create new links between industry and academia in training ESRs to develop new approaches to PSS which will help orgs to compete, create growth and innovation.